Introducing: Shipworm

April 26, 2021·22 min·1 clip

The voice proves it has been inside Conway's house by making his wife poached eggs — cooked exactly as Conway had just described.

The episode opens with a brief message from 2UP, the studio behind Limetown, explaining that what follows is the first 20 minutes of Shipworm — a full-length audio movie they describe as their most ambitious project. The story begins with a phone call in which a woman tells Dr. Wallace Conway she wants a separation, citing his emotional withdrawal and inability to talk to her. She references something he experienced while deployed or working abroad that she believes broke him. She ends by telling him to eat something before he drinks. Back at his office, Conway's assistant Wendy tells him a joke and leaves for the evening. Shortly after, a voice that only Conway can hear — which later identifies itself as the conductor — begins interrupting his phone conversations and instructing him to end calls and send people away. Wendy returns and cannot hear the voice. Conway grows increasingly alarmed. The conductor explains that it communicates through a surgically implanted listening device — untraceable and undetectable. Conway, dismissing it as a hallucination caused by drinking, resolves to take an x-ray of his skull. The conductor allows this as a courtesy, noting it will confirm nothing. After the x-ray shows nothing, the conductor continues. It demonstrates its capabilities by knowing Wendy's daughter's birthday, instructing Conway on what to say. More disturbingly, it reveals it has been inside Conway's home: it made his wife poached eggs and left a pair of scissors jammed into a teddy bear in his son's crib. Conway threatens to call the police; the conductor warns that doing so will trigger unspecified new measures. It then discloses that Conway is part of a larger, unspecified plan and sets a 24-hour deadline — cooperate or die. Following directions, Conway opens a desk drawer to find a hunting knife and a claw hammer. He chooses the hammer. The conductor assigns him to retrieve something from a safety deposit box at Citizens National Bank. Conway asks for coffee first. The teaser ends here, with a plug for the full Shipworm podcast.

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